Cortney O’Brien at Townhall reported on a somewhat funny moment from Tuesday’s NBC convention coverage. Chuck Todd stood in front of an interactive map and launched into a robust routine about how Joe Biden would easily find his way to 270 electoral votes. Then NBC convention coverage co-anchor Savannah Guthrie was rude enough to note it sounded a lot like Chuck....four years ago.
"Right now, we would already have Biden already with a win," Todd said. “We’ve got these states. He's got a 10-point lead nationally, and right now we have some of these big battleground states, from Nevada to Arizona, Florida to North Carolina, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, all already lean Biden. We think Biden has a lead of 5 points or more.”
As for the toss-up states they haven't assigned, like Iowa, Ohio, Georgia and Texas, Biden "doesn't have to win any of them and he'd still win the presidency with Barack Obama-like electoral vote numbers," Todd boasted.
Then Guthrie ruined the mood. Couldn't this be a rerun? "But, just for those who remember this movie from 2016, Chuck” – and he began to laugh, nervously – “ when folks like you and all of us put up polls and put maps that said Hillary Clinton would win, and now you're showing a similar map, I think a lot of people are probably sitting home, a little skeptical.”
Todd admitted “That’s okay, I’ll give you Trump path, it exists, it’s legit. It’s the same thing, There’s a way for him to do this. It’s very narrow.”
It is the same thing from last time -- Chuck suggesting it’s nearly impossible, like Evel Knievel flying over 20 school buses on a motorcycle.
"When you’re trailing in the national popular vote by the numbers he’s trailing, in order for the president to get to this path, he needs a job approval rating north of 46 percent," Todd explained, although this isn’t a “popular vote.” It’s a poll of a 900 voters.
"He's not been north of 45 in our poll for over a year. And he's gonna have to get his popular vote numbers to 47. You know, he can with that way. But it is a very difficult path as things stand right now," he concluded.
The latest Real Clear Politics average of polls has Biden with a 7.6 percent lead.
